The new naturists: cities go greener

The regeneration of New York's Highline seems to have kickstarted a renaissance in urban greening; cities all over the world are looking to open up formerly vacant, underused land into green public space for the benefit of their citizens.

Zaryadye Park in Moscow was designed by American practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Hargreaves Associates and Citymakers. It occupies the former site of Europe's largest hotel, demolished in 2007, on the banks of the Moskva River. Providing an informal counterweight to the monumentality of the adjacent Red Square and the Kremlin, the park celebrates Russia's four famous natural landscapes – tundra, steppe, wetlands and forests – while providing a number of integrated urban facilities and a dramatic, V-shaped path suspended out over the river.

Similarly, many cities in China are also constructing urban greening projects of their own. In Fuzhou, Singapore-based LOOK Architects have completed the Jin Niu Shan Trans-Urban Connector, a series of elevated paths that connect the city with the forests beyond. This network of winding walkway is over 19 kilometres long and criss-crosses a heavily wooded hillside at the level of the canopy. The pathway opens up views over the city, but more importantly the site itself, which, as it consists of military land and cemeteries, has been largely closed off to the general public.

Of course, it's not alway possible to simply reclaim existing landscapes. In AECOM's Oxygen Park in Qatar's Education City quarter, urban greening involved creating a new green oasis in the hot desert climate. Here the architects have may taken cues from the sinuous desert morphology, and created gently looping paths as well as steeper inclines, and introduced planting, canopies, gently enveloping tunnels and water features, all of which create places of respite for park goers. To top it all off, balloon-shaped lighting adds a touch of the surreal, creating an almost magical landscape.

Finally, Chicago Riverwalk, designed by Ross Barney Architects, is a an example of urban greening that largely involves the other urban colour: blue. Built over more than a decade, the project opened up the Chicago River bank, previously seen as "the city's backyard", to inhabitants and visitors alike. Featuring floating gardens, a continuous walking path, and jetties jutting out into the water, the design integrates a number of facilities including bars and kayaking facilities. At one point, wide steps to street level help to create a river 'theater' and elsewhere the integration of the monument to Chicago's Vietnam Veterans within the project provides a meaningful place of reflection in the middle of the Windy City.

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